Rogich lobbies for permit for Vegas bar

Erin Neff

Monday, March 6, 2000 | 11:57 a.m.

The lobbying at City Hall is expected to reach another fever pitch this week as the city's most powerful political operative asks individual council members for a permit to turn an office building into a bar.

Sig Rogich is asking the Las Vegas City Council to overturn a Planning Commission decision denying him the ability to convert his old R&R Advertising offices on Westwood Drive near Highland Avenue into a nightclub, perhaps with the ability to later seek a permit for a topless club.

Councilman Gary Reese has already been visited by Rogich and Lee Haney, an attorney/consultant who works for Rogich Communications Group.

Although he said he has not made up his mind on the request the council will consider March 15, Reese is concerned that the office is within 500 feet of a proposed day-care center and a boxing gym.

"I don't care who owns it," Reese said. "There's a boxing gym there, and I don't want kids coming out of the boxing gym and seeing those naked girls."

Rogich, a former presidential adviser and ambassador to Iceland, applied last year for a special-use permit for a bar and adult entertainment at his former offices. The area, near Interstate 15, is zoned for industrial uses. Adult entertainment is permitted in industrial zones.

R&R Advertising is currently owned by Billy Vassiliades and located on West Sahara Avenue.

The application was made in hopes of selling the building to someone who wanted to open a topless bar. Suitable locations with the appropriate zoning for such businesses are few and far between.

Rogich now says he only wants the zoning for a bar. Any buyer could always request a use permit for topless dancing.

The building, however, is too close to an existing tavern. As a result the Planning Commission ruled that Rogich's application violated the city's required 1,500-foot separation between bars.

"Why do we have the distance requirement if we're not going to enforce it?" Reese said.

Reese seems to have support from others on the council.

Councilman Michael McDonald, who said he will abstain because Rogich advises him on political matters, is quietly fighting the proposal.

Reese is asking his fellow council members to look at the site and see its proximity to the boxing gym, day-care center and bar.

"I would just ask everybody to go out and look at this one," Reese said. "In my mind, it's not legal."

Reese said he believes the individual council members will be lobbied as hard on this issue as they were recently by the two warring ambulance companies.